Type and press enter to search

Behind The Scenes – From The Shadows Documentary-Reality

ELIZABETH HONG From the Shadows started when Marveena Meek called me about wanting to create a documentary based on her work as a medium. Marveena shared with me how she wanted to bring light to a specific part of her work as a medium. Read below what happened behind the scenes.

MARVEENA MEEK I was so impressed with the story video on my NDE (near death experience) last year. After seeing how it all played out in video, now I want to show more of what goes on in my life: the good, bad and ugly.

ELIZABETH HONG Since that first phone call, we have produced two episodes of forty-four minutes. The experience has been one that has pushed me to think way outside the box. After filming for months with Marveena Meek, I can say that I am growing a bit more comfortable with the idea of unnatural disturbances. As we enter each location before a shot, there is always some worry: If this spirit goes home with me, then what?

MARVEENA MEEK One of the first assignments we went out on was to Linden, TX, a very old abandoned church. Now it is open regularly as a music venue. Back in the day it was a church where they used snakes as a part of their worship service. Who knows what all happened in the church, but it left a residue of fear and negativity. That was a perfect breeding ground for evil.

My clients called and told me they had an emergency. The caretaker who was living in the building told them he had been under a demonic attack for days now. He was petrified, and they were very concerned. They had seen a few unusual and scary things happen there too. I talked to the guy, “Phil”, and did some prayers and clearings for him over the phone. Then we loaded up the cameras and headed down there to get the story on film.

ELIZABETH HONG While driving there, I started interviewing Marveena inside the car. “There are different degrees of dark spirits or entities,” she says.

MARVEENA MEEK Evil beings thrive off fear. Never doubt they are out there. For every good angel there is a dark spirit of equal and opposite polarity. For every wonderful Archangel there is an Archdemon. There are levels of evil entities, just like there are levels of Angels, Thrones, Powers, and Archangels. You have negative entities that start off as mildly mischievous, dedicated negative entities, lesser demons, full demons, dark lords, and then archdemons. There are layers of negative entities in between.

The building is close to a pool of darkness and that makes it easy for entities to slide through the doorway from their astral plane to ours. They can hurt people, even cause death. Phil experienced extreme paranormal phenomena. His bed shook in the night; he was kicked over and over again. This is not a regular case at all.

ELIZABETH HONG Upon arrival, I was more than nervous. Here I am in front of this scary looking building, about to go face to face with a dark lord. As soon as we entered the location, the energy felt heavy and dark. We met the owner and Phil, Marveena’s client.

Phil refused to come inside. His fear was so real; I could see how this experience had tainted him. My partner and I decided to conduct the interview outside the building, just steps away from the street. As we moved forward with the story, I started to understand just how traumatizing something like this can be. It is the type of thing with the power to imprint terror in a person’s mind for life. It is the thing that triggers fear every time the lights go off and makes one wonder what if the demon comes back?

MARVEENA MEEK Phil was understandably nervous. He hadn’t been back inside since he was thrown out by the evil spirit. A lot of bad things had happened to him inside. Phil had really hit a low point in his own life. Having problems in the past with substance abuse, he was sort of left high and dry in this little town with nothing. Facing severe depression, he was trying to work and get his life back together. He had strong faith, and that really helped him get through this.

I think the evil energies in the place saw him in a weak state of mind and took full advantage of that. They got a lot of reaction from him and that fear that he emanated was what they wanted.

ELIZABETH HONG After we were done with interviews and paranormal investigation, it was time to photograph and film the space alone. My partner Daniel Montoya wanted to film a door with the lights off. He was recording with a DSLR through a long hallway. But before we started, I noticed how not only Marveena but the owners just bolted out. Marveena when outside and sat inside her car. I thought, How strange–everyone just left so fast, but photography and Daniel were waiting for me inside.

As we started to film, Daniel was instructing me when to turn the lights off and on. Please note, the building is underground, so once the lights go off, it is pitch dark. While playing with the switch, I needed to turn it off. Well, the light would not go off. I kept pulling the switch off but the light remained on. Daniel kept repeating himself: “Turn them off.” I said, “I am, but the switch is not working now.” In that moment, I felt like whatever was keeping the light on knew it was interrupting our work. I felt like I was surrounded by eyes everywhere. I had the feeling of being watched by something there, invisible but strong enough to make their presence known.

MARVEENA MEEK I felt a lot of suffering had happened there; the sadness and pain is easy to feel. It makes my stomach hurt to go in there when it is all riled up. One of my takeaways from this is to do your best to hold a place of calm and trust in a higher power to help you overcome your fear and evil.

ELIZABETH HONG I kept thinking back to Marveena’s words inside the car and the nine levels of evil, with the last, the evolved dark lord in this building, as the chief and commander of all lesser demons. While I was interviewing Phil, he explained how the demon pounded on the walls and how he saw the wall shake from the power of whatever was on the other side of the wall. I kept thinking, Is the dark lord the one keeping the light switch on?

That was all it took. I thought, You can have your switch and I am out of here. In a rush, I started to pick up all our equipment. Daniel was just standing there, looking at me like I was crazy. “Where are you going?” he said. “We have a lot of work left to do.” We left the building in a rush.